Word: volcano
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...campaign's goal is not without precedent. Previous suicide magnets - the Empire State Building, Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, and the Mt. Mihara volcano in Japan - have all installed barriers, resulting in dramatic reductions, in some cases to zero, in the number of desperate people who jump...
...Spectacularly uncooperative types like Michael Metrinko, a political officer who could insult his guards (and their mothers) in fluent Farsi, were routinely roughed up and thrown into solitary. That may have been preferable to being subjected to political harangues by true believers like Massoumeh (Screaming Mary) Ebtekar, then a volcano of fundamentalist cant, later the first female Vice President of Iran...
...mysticism: animist spirits, Hindu gods, Sufi saints. One of the most sacred sites is a magnificent 3,000-m peak called Merapi, which literally means "fire mountain." For centuries villagers living on its slopes and base have pledged their fate to Merapi, not just because it's an active volcano but because it provides fertile soil for them to grow food and raise cattle, and sand and stone for them to build their homes. Every year they bring Merapi gifts of food, tobacco and clothing, both to appease it and to seek its protection. The volcano even has a caretaker...
...Last week, however, thousands of them filed back to their homes, partly out of fear that they were being looted (they weren't). Merapi's current caretaker, 79-year-old Marijan, told reporters his dreams tell him the volcano won't blow its top, but that the eruptions are a warning to the people to fulfill their obligations to the spirits. He says he won't leave his own home, even though it's just 6 km from the summit: "If I do, I would not be guarding the mountain I have promised to guard. I would not be doing...
After sailing up the Rio Dulce, Guatemala's "Sweet River," the couple made their way to the central highlands. "We fell in love with Antigua," Sadlier recalls. Within two months, they bought a partially built house in the charming, volcano-ringed colonial city...